The only thing that is almost as exciting as watching and listening to a multimedia performance by Pamela Z is to hear her talk about it which she does for almost an hour in a fascinating conversation with Frank J. Oteri that ranges from creating during the pandemic to dealing with constant changes in technology and Pamela's obsession with old telephones. Read a complete transcript on NewMusicBox: https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/pamela-z-expanding-our-imaginations/

SoundLives -- Pamela Z: Expanding Our Imaginations

Violinists and yoga instructors Melissa White & Elena Urioste discuss with Julia Adolphe the impact of abusive or unsupportive teachers and methodologies in conservatory life that strip power from students instead of inspiring self-care and compassion.

LooseLeaf NoteBook

LooseLeaf Notebook -- Elena Urioste & Melissa White: Your Unique Body, Voice & Healing Process

Julia Adolphe shares her thoughts on why the myth of the tortured artist has been attractive to society as well as to herself personally as she was struggling to come to terms with Anxiety Disorder.

LooseLeaf NoteBook -- The Attraction of the Tortured Artist Myth

A week after her first live concert performance since the pandemic, composer & percussionist Susie Ibarra talked with us about: a year of making music under quarantine; her collaborative approach to working with other musicians; her explorations of jazz, classical music, traditional Philippine music, and even indie rock; drums as melodic instruments; and the gender stereotyping of percussion in different genres and cultures. Read a full transcript on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/susie-ibarra-hybrid-culture/

SoundLives -- Susie Ibarra: Hybrid Culture

Composer and Violinist Jessie Montgomery shares how she has shifted her creative process since the pandemic began to cultivate a sense of playful freedom and reconnect with her childhood love of diverse musical styles. We discuss how systemic racism has affected Jessie's perception of her own musical identity, and her thoughts on her growing role within the classical music community to represent Black women. Jessie offers advice on how to pace oneself while participating in the ongoing process of Anti-Racism work so that we can continue to care for our own health and creative vitality.

LooseLeaf NoteBook -- Jessie Montgomery: Reclaiming Creative Play & the Process of Anti-Racism

"Music is supposed to have meaning," according to Dr. Adolphus Hailstork whose music captures the tribulations and the occasional triumphs of African Americans in this country. Hailstork's 80th birthday year got off to an impressive start with a performance of his music as part of the Presidential Inauguration ceremony of Joe Biden. Since then there has been a world premiere of a concert aria he composed to commemorate the centenary of the Tulsa Massacre and he awaits the premiere of his recently completed Fourth Symphony, Read a full transcript on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/adolphus-hailstork-music-is-a-service

SoundLives -- Adolphus Hailstork: Music is a Service

Spending an hour over Zoom chatting with Renée Baker about her more than two thousand musical compositions and perhaps almost as many paintings was inspirational as well as motivational. Renée does not let anything deter her and while her music is extremely wide ranging and gleefully embraces freedom of expression, her daily schedule is precise and meticulous. You can read a full transcript of this podcast as well as she some of her paintings and scores as well as an excerpt from one of the hundreds of silent films for which she created new music over at NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/renee-baker-nothings-gonna-stop-you-from-creating/

SoundLives -- Renée Baker: Nothing's Gonna Stop You From Creating

NEA Jazz Master and three-time Grammy Award-winner Terri Lyne Carrington was practically born into jazz, but she is not a traditionalist. By embracing elements from rock, rhythm and blues, and hip-hop into her own compositions, she is making music that is very much about the present moment. And in founding the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice and now partnering with New Music USA on the new Next Jazz Legacy program, Terri Lyne hopes to build a future that dismantles the jazz patriarchy and eliminates the gender imbalance among instrumentalists.

SoundLives --Terri Lyne Carrington: A World of Sound Waiting for Us

One of the hardest parts of composer Julia Adolphe accepting her diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder was relearning to trust her voice, mind and body after she felt it had betrayed her. She discusses the importance of trusting your voice in your personal life in order to fully trust your creative voice and vision as an artist.

LooseLeaf NoteBook -- Trusting Your Voice with a Mental Illness

Among the recurring themes in talking with composer-pianist-conductor Matthew Aucoin is generosity and risk-taking, something that is in abundance in Aucoin's own music as well as his personality. Over the course of an hour, Aucoin talks with Frank J. Oteri about his opera Eurydice, which was just performed at the Metropolitan Opera; the first commercial recording of his music; his just released new book about opera, The Impossible Art, which was also just released; his desire to develop new musical repertoire that addresses climate change; his critique of Pierre Boulez, and much much more. Read a full transcript at NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/matthew-aucoin-risking-generosity/

SoundLives -- Matthew Aucoin: Risking Generosity

In the latest episode of her ongoing LooseLeaf NoteBook podcast focusing on creativity and mental health, composer Julia Adolphe speaks with conductor Ryan McAdams. Ryan shares how the myth of the "ideal" conductor, perpetuated at conservatory and within Western culture, glorifies destructive lifestyles such as living in isolation, excessive behaviors, constant striving for perfection, appearing omniscient, and hiding all human vulnerabilities. In order to manage these impossible professional standards, Ryan believes many conductors turn towards self-destructive behaviors, and Ryan shares some of his own personal struggles. Lastly, Ryan suggests how young conductors could be nurtured and prepared for the challenges of the profession, instead of being told they are not cut out for the job if they cannot cope with stress.

RyanMcAdams

In the latest episode of LooseLeaf NoteBook, composer Julia Adolphe's creativity and mental health podcast, composer Andrew Norman shares with Julia how his creative anxiety has led him into a current period of writer's block. They discuss how his frenetic language captures how thoughts move in his mind, the underlying sources of his anxiety, and brainstorm together how he can move forward to reconnect with the joy of his creative process.

LooseLeaf NoteBook -- Andrew Norman: Anxiety & Creative Process

Composer, arranger, conductor, and teacher Alice Parker has been a fixture of the choral music community since working with the legendary Robert Shaw Chorale when she was fresh out of college in the late 1940s. As she explains to Frank J. Oteri. Parker has devoted herself almost exclusively to music for the voice, since she strongly believes that people find their common ground through singing together. Read more on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/alice-parker-feeling-the-same-emotion-at-the-same-time/

Alice Parker: Feeling the Same Emotion at the Same Time

How we perceive sound on a psychological level as it unfolds over time is key to the sonic experiences that Sarah Hennies creates. Despite the extremely broad stylistic range of her output, everything from her early collaborative work as part of an experimental rock band to a multimedia documentary to extended duration solo and chamber music compositions for various instrumental combinations, it all shares a concern for extremely precise sonic gestures and involves a great deal of repetition. While Sarah Hennies prides herself on scores that are extremely economical (a score for a nearly 34-minute piece is a mere two pages), the sonorities feel extremely generous. Learn more on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/sarah-hennies-getting-at-the-heart-of-a-sound/

Sarah Hennies: Getting at the Heart of a Sound

For Anthony Davis, whose compositional aesthetics are an amalgamation of several different musical traditions (jazz, Western classical music, gamelan), different kinds of music recall different emotional states and experiences in terms of what the music implies. So it's inevitable that he has devoted so much of his compositional energies to opera, and in particular to using the operatic medium to tell stories that either deal with significant historic events or which focus on important social concerns. As he tells Frank J. Oteri in this latest episode of NewMusicBox's SoundLives podcast, "What we face now ... has made it more urgent for me, as an artist, to present things to challenge those forces." Read more on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/anthony-davis-any-means-necessary/ ‎

SoundLives -- Anthony Davis Any Means Necessary

In the latest episode of her LooseLeaf NoteBook podcast, composer Julia Adolphe talks with fellow composer Frank Ticheli who shares his experience with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which manifested in his 30s in the form of chronic pain and impeded his ability to compose. We discuss how Frank reframed his relationship to his writing process in order to reconnect with his work, difficulties with medication and therapy, and how cultivating a dialogue with one's subconscious enriches creativity. Lastly, we discuss Frank's An American Elegy, commissioned by the Alpha Iota Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi in memory of the victims of the mass shooting at Columbine High School, and the role that educators can play in caring for and monitoring their students' mental health during increasingly anxious times.

Frank Ticheli: Overcoming Anxiety & Trusting the Subconscious

While the idiosyncratic graphic scores of 2022 Pulitzer Prize winning composer Raven Chacon are stunningly original in their conception and have been recognized as works of visual art in their own right (several are in this year's Whitney Biennial), they have a larger social purpose. WARNING: At a little over 44 minutes into the podcast, there is an excerpt of a musical performance involving shotguns.

SoundLives Episode 16 - - Raven Chacon: Fluidity of Sound

Composer/Bassoonist Joy Guidry shares with Julia Adolphe how they protect their own mental health while exploring personally traumatic content in their art. Joy and Julia discuss their critically acclaimed debut album, Radical Acceptance (2022), which traces Joy's personal experiences of Bipolar Disorder and PTSD. Joy differentiates between the harmful nature of forcing oneself to relive a traumatic personal memory in order to create art, and the act of reclaiming and transforming one's experience through communal storytelling. Lastly, Joy shares what they wish others knew about Bipolar Disorder and how musical institutions can be more ADA compliant and accessible.

LooseLeaf NoteBook -- Joy Guidry: Transforming Trauma through the Creative Process

Samora and Elena Pinderhughes in conversation around the blurred boundaries between composer, musician, instrumentalist, producer and songwriter. The musical multi-hyphenates dive deep into anecdotes, personal narratives and a bit of philosophy around their processes, their truths and the ways they've evolved as creators. They converse with a depth only collaborators who are also siblings can reach.

dublab -- Samora and Elena Pinderhughes in conversation exploring the boundaries of creation

The new music community has been impacted, inspired and transformed by Tania León as a musical creator--as well as an interpreter, educator, and organizer--for decades. In the last two years, the rest of the world has caught up with her. In 2021, she received the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her extraordinary orchestral composition Stride which was given its world premiere performance by the New York Philharmonic just a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic reached New York City. And in December 2022, she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, and the four members of the Irish rock band U2; to mark the occasion all were greeted at The White House by U.S. President Joe Biden. León, who does not believe in genre demarcation, is deeply honored to be in their company. As she tells Frank J. Oteri in this December 2022 SoundLives podcast, "I can conduct Stravinsky, play Hindemith, but I dance salsa."

Back in 1999, Tania León was the very first composer featured in a one-on-one conversation for NewMusicBox; with this new SoundLives podcast recorded more than 23 years later, she is the first person ever so featured twice! Read more on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/tania-leon-the-rhythm-of-life/

SoundLives #19 -- Tania León: The Rhythm of Life

BAE BAE takes us into a labyrinth of sound, a hazardous journey filled with techno, afro riddims, vocal ballads and ambient samples. The mix is the kind of set you will hear at Hood Rave, the underground party she curates in LA.

This program is part of New Music USA’s web magazine NewMusicBox “Guest Editor series”, which aims to celebrate a plurality of voices from across the nation and will feature exclusive content written, produced, or commissioned by a rotating artist or organization.

dublab -- BAE BAE - Hood Rave Mix

Dublab Radio DJ Chandler Poling of Studio Soundtracks interviews film composer Chanda Dancy about her musical upbringing, her inspirations, and her creative contributions to the Sony Pictures’ feature film "Devotion."  Together they discuss the public perception of what a composer is and how Chanda’s work challenges that perspective.

dublab -- Staying True in the Film Industry

Warp Composers' Sen Moreira is joined by producer and composer Casey MQ in a conversation about the current landscape in the world of composition, film scoring, and publishing in an ever changing music industry.

Sen Moreira is the North America Licensing & Composer Manager for the newly established Warp Composers, representing composers across Warp Publishing and Warp Records rosters from their offices in Los Angeles and London.

Casey Manierka-Quaile is an artist, producer and composer from Toronto, now based in Los Angeles. He is classically trained as a pianist and has written and produced under the artist name of Casey MQ, collaborating with the likes of Oklou, Christine & The Queens, Flume and more. Winner of the 2021 Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Song, Manierka's scores have premiered at TIFF, SXSW, Berlinale, Sundance and Rotterdam Film Festival.

Dublab -- The Current Landscape In Composition, Film Scoring And Publishing

Composer Kevin Puts takes pride in keeping secrets, both by being understated in his interactions with people and by never initially giving away all the goods in his music, preferring, as he tells Frank J. Oteri, "to keep something in reserve so that there's a payoff for the attentive listener." But in their hour-long conversation, he'll reveal some of the secrets behind The Hours (his Metropolitan Opera debut), and Contact (his triple concerto for Time for Three which just won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition), and much more. Read more at NewMusicBox:  https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/kevin-puts-keeping-secrets/

SoundLives Episode #20 - Kevin Puts: Keeping Secrets

The story of Tina Davidson's life, which is the basis of her newly published memoir Let Your Heart Be Broken, is extremely intense but also a rewarding reading experience just like the emotional roller coaster rides in so many of her musical compositions make for very compelling listening. As she told  Frank J. Oteri, "When you write about yourself, you really make yourself incredibly vulnerable, and hopefully you can do that without making other people vulnerable in your life." Learn more on NewMusicBox: newmusicusa.org/nmbx/tina-davidson-listening-through-the-journey

Tina Davidson Episode #21: Listening Through The Journey

Brandee Younger has carved out a very unlikely music career for herself, a classically-trained harpist who went from making her jazz debut over a decade ago to being an in-demand leader and collaborator in a wide range of musical genres. How she has transformed this instrument seems without precedent. But, as she explains to Frank J. Oteri in this NewMusicBox SoundLives podcast episode, a huge role model for her was Dorothy Ashby, a jazz and later R&B harpist and composer who, in the years since her death, has become one of the recording artists most heavily sampled on hip-hop tracks.  Brandee's latest album, Brand New Life, plays tribute to Dorothy Ashby, by taking her poly-stylistic inclinations even further. To read more about Brandee Younger and read a transcript of this entire conversation, please visit NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/brandee-younger-a-hip-hop-baby-transforms-the-harp/

SoundLives 22. Brandee Younger: A Hip-Hop Baby Transforms The Harp

inti figgis-vizueta creates music that carefully balances experimentation and practicality. She likens her compositions to plants which have the ability to grow and change when different people performing them. And in the last few years her music has been championed by an extremely wide range of musicians from Roomful of Teeth to Ensemble Dal Niente to the Kronos Quartet. Read a complete transcript of her conversation with Frank J. Oteri and learn more about her music on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/inti-figgis-vizueta-the-ability-to-grow/

SoundLives23 - -inti figgis-vizueta: the ability to grow

Growing up in Soviet-era Lithuania, where people were often afraid to express their real feelings, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė discovered early on that music was safer than language and that it could enable her to express her innermost feelings without self censoring. It ultimately led her on the path to becoming a composer whose music is performed all over the world.  Although Žibuoklė now divides her time between a democratic Lithuania and the United States, her formative experiences have led her to explore a sonic vocabulary, which though frequently inspired by nature and always deeply emotive, is completely abstract and open to multiple interpretations. This hour-long conversation with Frank J. Oteri also features excerpts from eight different pieces of Žibuoklė's music. Learn more about her and read a complete transcript of the conversation on NewMusicBox: https://newmusicusa.org/nmbx/zibuokle-martinaityte-unexplainable-places/

SoundLives24. Žibuoklė Martinaitytė: Unexplainable Places

When Zoë Keating takes the stage, her charismatic presence—a perfect balance of focused performer and welcoming MC—exerts a magnetic attraction. She is a composer who, with a chair, her cello, a bit of software, and some amplification, conjures an entire orchestra of sound out of the timbres of this one instrument.

Read the complete interview at: http://www.newmusicbox.org/?p=14571

Music (in order of appearance)

"Lost"
Music composed and performed by Zoë Keating 
Filmed during soundcheck 
The Center Stage Auditorium 
at the Reston Community Center
4.14.12

"Tetrishead"
Music composed and performed by Zoë Keating 
Filmed performance from "Zoë Keating : 
Live at the Scottish Ruby Conference"
Excerpted with permission
https://vimeo.com/23849926
 
"Escape Artist"
Music composed and performed by Zoë Keating 
Filmed during soundcheck 
The Center Stage Auditorium 
at the Reston Community Center
4.14.12

"Optimist"
Music composed and performed by Zoë Keating 
Film shot and edited by Brian Thomson
Festival of Colors
Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah
Excerpted with permission
https://vimeo.com/22641476

"Frozen Angels"
Music composed and performed by Zoë Keating 
Filmed performance from "Zoë Keating : 
Live at the Scottish Ruby Conference"
Excerpted with permission
https://vimeo.com/23849926


Exponential: The Music of Zoë Keating

To realize Mike Johnson’s musical conceptions, the musicians in his band Thinking Plague—like members of a contemporary music ensemble—read from fully notated scores. Because of its instrumentation and volume, it still sounds somewhat like rock but it is light years away from popular music. In this video presentation by Molly Sheridan, Mike Johnson explains to Frank J. Oteri why he wanted to infuse the world of the Rolling Stones and Yes with the harmonic vocabulary of Shostakovich and William Schuman and describes the ups and downs of Thinking Plague's now 35-year history. 

To read the entire transcript of their conversation, go to: http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/mike-johnson-thinking-plague/ ‎

*

Music
(in order of appearance)

“Anthem"
Thinking Plague 
Guitar (left):  Bill Pohl
Drums:  Robin Chestnut
Vocals:  Elaine di Falco
Sax:  Mark Harris
Bass:  Dave Willey
Guitar (right):  Mike Johnson
Video by Dávid Lovas
Audio recording by Balan Villanueva
Remixed by Mike Johnson
Recorded live at COTFG series
Salvage Vanguard Theater 
Austin, Texas
January 2017

“Dead Silence" 
Thinking Plague
Guitar:  Mike Johnson
Drums:  Robin Chestnut
Bass:  Dave Willey
Sax:  Mark Harris
Vocals:  Elaine di Falco
Filmed for the DVD documentary 
Romantic Warriors II - About Rock in Opposition 
Video courtesy Zeitgeist Media LLC 
progdocs.com
July 2011

"Warheads"
Thinking Plague
Guitar: Mike Johnson 
Keyboards and vocals: Elaine Di Falco
Bass: Dave Willey
Drums: David Kerman 
Flute and saxophone: Mark Harris
Soundboard: Udi Koomran 
Video by Antonio Siniscalchi
Recorded live in Milan 
April 2008   

"How to Clean a Squid"
Thinking Plague 
Keyboards (left):  Lawrence Haugseth
Guitar:  Mike Johnson
Drums:  Mark Fuller
Vocals:  Susanne Lewis
Bass:  Bob Drake
Keyboards (right):  Eric Moon (Jacobson)
Video by Fred Hesse
Audio recording by Arnie Swenson
Recorded live at Stage West
Denver, Colorado
November 1987

Mike Johnson: Thinking Plague

Although Michael J. Schumacher has stated that he is interested in "defining boundaries and not crossing them," he does not let that limit his own extremely wide range of music-making—from the immersive Room Pieces and other sound installations to dance collaborations with choreographer Liz Gerring, to his indie “dance pop” band diNMachine. “I love lots of kinds of music; I’m just aware of the differences,” he explains to Frank J. Oteri in this video presentation by Molly Sheridan. To read a transcript of their entire conversation, go to: https://www.newmusicusa.org/michael-j-schumacher-composing-is-listening

Music
(in order of appearance)

Portable Multi-Channel Sound System
Composed by Michael J. Schumacher
Udine,Italy
2016

glacier (excerpt) 
Choreographed by Liz Gerring
Composed by Michael J. Schumacher
Production Design Robert Wierzel
Associate Lighting Designer Amith A. Chandrashakar
Costume Design Marion Talan
Dancers
Benjamin Asriel
Brandon Collwes
Adele Nickel
Tony Neidenbach
Brandin Steffensen
Jake Szczypek
Jessica Weiss
Claire Westby
glacier was commissioned by Peak Performances 
at Montclair State University, New Jersey
World Premiere performance presented at
Alexander Kasser Theater
Montclair State University
9.19.13

For more information visit: lizgerringdance.org/works/glacier

Portable Multi-Channel Sound System
Composed by Michael J. Schumacher 
SMFA at Tufts Library 
Boston, Massachusetts
2017

“Brisé" from The Opposites of Unity
Music by diNMachine
Video by Azazel Jacobs
Camera by Tobias Datum
Performance by Debra Winger

Michael J. Schumacher: Composing is Listening

Nebal Maysaud
with musicologist Imani Mosley

 It has been a little over a year since the publication of Nebal Maysaud’s “It’s Time To Let Classical Music Die,” which is the most widely-read article in the history of NewMusicBox. One year later, Nebal reexamines these ideas in a candid conversation with musicologist Imani Mosley, where they discuss how to nurture a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable creative community.

audio production: Brigid Pierce

Nebal Maysaud: Rumored "Death" of Classical Music Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

Valerie Coleman is committed to storytelling through her music, no matter the idiom. As she tells Frank J. Oteri in this conversation recorded on September 29, 2020, “I recognize that there are stories that are yet untold that if they were told, they would transform all those who would hear them. So it’s my job to create music that allows that transformative power to happen.” 

Frank J. Oteri in conversation with Valerie Coleman
September 29, 2020—11 A.M.
Via a Zoom Conference Call between Miami FL and New York NY
Produced and recorded by Brigid Pierce; audio editing by Anthony Nieves

To read a complete transcript of the talk, please visit NewMusicBox: https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/valerie-coleman-writing-music-for-people/

SoundLives -- Valerie Coleman: Writing Music for People

Julie Giroux, who creates music primarily for wind band, takes musicians and audiences on a journey that is a real sonic adventure and, at the same time, is always fun. NewMusicBox editor Frank J. Oteri talks with her about the ins and outs of the wind band (including an in-depth discussion of her own wind band symphonies), her career in Hollywood (which led to her being the first female composer to win an Emmy), her wacky arrangements of Christmas songs (‘tis the season after all), and how she’s coping with life in quarantine. To read a complete transcription of this podcast, visit NewMusicBox: https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/julie-giroux-a-wind-band-is-a-box-of-168-crayons/

SoundLives -- Julie Giroux: A Wind Band is a Box of 168 Crayons

Kris Bowers is among the humblest and most introverted composer/performers which is astounding considering his accomplishments—winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition at 20, a daytime Emmy four years ago, and now one of the most in-demand composers for film and television, most recently scoring the popular Netflix series Bridgerton. And yet it all makes sense when you begin exploring Bowers’s incredible versatility, his openness to all genres of music, and hear how attuned his music is to whatever project he is working on--Kris Bowers creates music that is attuned to whatever project he is working on--whether it’s the score for the 2018 motion picture Green Book, the 2019 EA Sports videogame Madden NFL 20, the 2020 Phyllis Schlafly-inspired Hulu series Mrs. America, or the 2021 Netflix sensation Bridgerton.

SoundLives -- Kris Bowers: In Love With Accompaniment

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